The owl
by animedork72
Summary: small town farmer gets a gift.


The owl

Author's note: this will only be one chapter long. I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters. I also do not own the original Asian story on which this fictional piece is based on. I'm only using names from Harry Potter. So please don't sue me! I'm a broke student!

Setting is in a small London town in the 1800's.

With in the small town of Hogwarts lived a man named Draco Malfoy. Draco was destined to be like his father and grandfather, a farmer. But unexpectedly his parents died, leaving him the house and farm. Instantly all the women in the town wanted Draco to meet their daughters in hopes of him marring one of the girls. It wasn't every day that a young bachelor was available, much less one that owned his own house and farm! They started to drop by his home with baked goods to show Draco that the girls could cook. He was kind to them at first and accepted the meals. But it got worse and worst, until he finally said he didn't what to marry any of the girls. He stopped talking to the mothers and their daughters. If they came by his house he would not answer the door. It angered him to know that they only wanted him for what he had, and not for who he was on the inside. They eventually got the blunt hint and stopped bothering him. Time passed and the daughters married gullible men. Although he was sad that he didn't have a wife to share his life with; he was glad that he had escaped the grasp of the money hungry town's women.

Several years passed and the now 28year old Draco had still not found a woman to marry. As he lay awake one night, he prayed to God for a wife who would love him for who he was. The next day he woke up and did what he always did; work on the farm. He had less than a month to harvest the vegetables before winter would come. As he stood in the fields pulling weeds, an eerie fog stared coming in from the ocean. He continued to work, when he heard it: an animal crying. He followed the whimpering sounds until he discovered a mud covered wounded owl. It had been hit by an arrow, crashed in the field, and would die if the arrow was not removed from its body. Draco went to pick it up, but the owl tried to move away, pushing the arrow deeper into its body. "Please don't move." Draco pleaded with it. "I don't want to hurt you, but I have to touch you in order to help you." The owl looked at him with its black eyes as if it understood what he was saying and decided to trust him. Draco took off his jacket, gently picked up the bird and took it home. There he removed the arrow and washed the owl. As the mud was cleaned off, Draco discovered how white the feathers were, whiter than snow. He carefully dried the owl and marveled at how soft the animal was. Never had he seen a creature so beautiful in his life. Draco nursed the bird back to health and with in a week the wound had completely healed. Draco took the bird out side and let it free. The owl joyfully flew into the air, circled the house and left.

Winter had finally come. Draco had gotten plenty of wood and food to last him through the following months. He sat inside one night carving a wooden owl when he heard a knock on the door. _"Must be the winter wind,"_ he thought. Then he heard it again, but louder. "Who would be out side on a night like this?" he asked himself. He opened the door and in stumbled a young woman. She had dark brown curly hair, eyes that matched the dark winter night and skin white as the snow outside. "I've heard that you are unmarried. I would like to be your wife." She said. Draco stood there speechless! Hear was a beautiful woman that wanted to be his wife and he didn't know why! "Who...wa…WHY!" Draco asked. This wasn't happening, maybe it was a dream. He pinched himself. Ouch! Nope, not a dream. "I've heard that you are kind, caring man and I would like to be your wife." She stated. "We don't even know each other!" he exclaimed waving his arms in the air. "How do you know that I would be good enough to be your husband?" "I know enough to know that you would be a wonderful husband to me." "Um, o...k. Well how about we wait a few days. If you still want to marry me, we'll get married then. Sounds good?" "Your answer is fine. I will stay here and see if we are compatible." That night he slept in the living room, while she slept in his bedroom. The following days were very strange to Draco. He would awake to the wonderful smell of food. They would talk about their lives: how he had taken care of the farm after his parents died and of all the places she had seen. When asked about her family, she said that she had several siblings, but had not seen them in several years. Her parents moved to a new place after the old home was destroyed. She was at liberty to explore the world. When she heard of him, she knew she wanted to marry him. At the end of the days he asked her again "Do you still want to marry me?" "Yes" she replied. "Ok, wait here" He ran to his room and opened up a trunk that had belonged to his parents. Inside he found his mother's wedding ring. It wad been worn by many happy brides in his family for many generations. He grabbed his mother's winter coat. Besides the ring, it had been her most prized possession. It was made of leather and had sheep's wool on the inside to keep a person warm on the coldest of nights. He placed the coat on her and they both walked to the town's church. There under the eyes of God, the Priest, and several clergy men, the wedding happened. "Do you Draco take…..I'm sorry dear, but what's your name?" the priest asked. "Hermione" she replied. "Do you Draco take Hermione to be your wife?" "Yes" "Do your Hermione take Draco to be your husband?" "Yes". Draco placed the wedding ring on her finger. "By the power vested in me I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." They kissed and went home.

That night, for the first time in his life, Draco was lying in bed with a woman. He laid there unsure of what to do. Around midnight he looked over to see her and was shocked to see that she had been watching him the entire time. "We're married now. Aren't we supposed to celebrate?" she asked him. He took a big gulp and nodded, unsure of what to do next. She reached over, ran her fingers down his face and then kissed him on the lips."_There soft as feathers."_ he thought. Their bodies moved closer, as their kiss depend. His tongue licked her lips to see what they tasted like, _"There so sweet." _then slowly moved inward. He wanted to explore this beautiful creature in his arms, so he unwillingly let her lips go and started to explore her neck. He gave little kisses up and down her neck, flicking his tongue against her soft skin. She gave a soft moan of pleasure, a sign he took as to continue. He gently scraped his teeth against her collar bone, sending a shiver of delight cursing through her body, followed by another moan escaping her lips. All the sounds she was make were getting to him. From the first sound she had made, a warm feeling had started to grow in the bottom of his belly. He wasn't dumb, he knew what was happening. She ran her finger though his blond hair and gently brought his lips back to hers. She then felt the need to explore him. She too started to kiss his neck and a deep groan escaped his mouth. On the base of his neck she found a small birth mark, which she softly started to half kiss, half suck on. She smiled as she heard a gasp leave his mouth. He began going into overdrive. She felt what was happening to his body and was pleased to know that she had done that to him. They spent that night celebrating their marriage to each other. The next morning he awoke with his body entwined with hers. He smiled. He had never felt this happy in his entire life. As she laid there sleeping, he studied her features. Her brown curly hair was messy from celebrating. She had a smile on her face as if she was having a wonderful dream. _"Is she dreaming of me"_, Draco thought to himself. She didn't have any freckles on her body, but he did notice a scar on her lower stomach. He frowned. _"How did she get that? And how did she survive a wound like that?" _

The following weeks were complete bliss for Draco. One day he had decided to go into town and took Hermione with him. As they walked through the market place, Hermione noticed that Draco would first count the money in his pocket before buying something. He kept recounting his money before he would buy anything. When they got home she asked him about his odd behavior. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it" he replied as he kissed her forehead. But she knew something was off. She went into the barn in hopes of finding what she was looking for. She made sure it worked and dragged it into the house. "What are you doing with my mom's old spinning wheel?" Draco asked with a confused look on his face. "We need the money. I can spin a bit to make thread that can be sold. All I need is a small space to work in." And with that she got to work. She set up the spinning wheel at the end of the hall were she put up a paper wall and door. "Hermione, you don't have to do this. We have enough money to last us until spring. I'll plow the field and we'll have money in no time." "But we need money now. Today you didn't buy 12 eggs as you normally do. You only bought 6! Ill do just a ball of yarn, alright? All I ask is that you don't go in the room while I'm in there. Ok?" He nodded. She closed the door and started to work. Night time came and Hermione had still not come out. "Hermione? Are you coming to bed?" Draco asked his wife. "I'll be done in a bit. Go to sleep with out me" she replied. Hours later, while Draco was sleeping, Hermione was finished. She laid the ball of yarn on the table and fell asleep in Draco's arms.

The next day she awoke to find Draco smiling at her. "Guess what? I took the yarn to the market this morning and got thirty pieces of silver!" (Author: found it's about $20-a lot back then) "That's great Draco. That's enough to last us until spring, right?" she asked. "Yeah, but I was thinking. It would be nice to get some chickens. We could have fresh eggs to eat. We wouldn't have to buy them at the market place. Do you thing you could possibly make another ball of yarn? Johnson said he'd give me 30 pieces if the yarn was the same whiteness as of the ball before." He had a pleading look on his face that Hermione couldn't refuse. "Ok." He smiled and kissed her on the lips. Hermione stayed up that night spinning the wheel and making the yarn. The next morning Draco awoke to find a ball of yarn on the kitchen table. This time the yarn was a shade whiter than before. He sold the yarn and was able to get several chickens and still had money left over. That night he asked Hermione to weave more yarn. It would be great if they had some pigs. They could raise the piglets that were born and sell the ones they didn't want. They could have bacon, ham and sausage! Hermione looked down at the floor when he asked this. "Hey what's wrong? This is for us. If you don't want to weave I understand." Draco said. But Hermione could tell he had his heart set on a couple of pigs, so she said she'd weave again. She asked Draco not to go in the room while she was in there. She spent the night weaving as she had done the nights before. The next morning Draco found a ball of yarn on the table, just as he had hoped. This yarn was even whiter that the last ball. He took it to the market, bought the pigs and still had money left over. As he was leaving he saw a beaded necklace that would look perfect on Hermione. As he was looking the necklace over, he over heard some town's women talking. "Did you hear of Malfoy's wife making yarn whiter than ours?" "Yes! It's the whitest that's ever been made. I wonder what she uses." "What ever it is, I'd like to get some. I've never seen him or her buy any cotton or wool to make the yarn." "I bet she's not going to tell what it made of, that way she can keep all the profits to her self!" The two women walked off. Draco smiled to himself. _"So the women are jealous of Hermione's yarn!"_ But he wondered, what did she use to make the yarn?

He arrived home and told Hermione about the pigs, but left the ladies conversation out.

"Johnson was telling me that he'd gladly give me some cows if I gave him another ball of white yarn." He told her. "Draco, I thought this was enough- last night's yarn would be the last I would make. We have plenty of money left over." She pleaded. "Yeah, but think how great it would be to have fresh milk and cheese. I could even use the bull to plow the fields. The crops would have more vegetables, which would bring in more money." He replied. "Is that all you care about? Money!" she cried. "No! I care about us! I care about you! I want to be a good provider for you!" _did she see?_ He thought. She looked so sad standing there. He had to cheer her up. He took out the necklace he bought and placed in on her. "Ok." Her voice was so sad. "I'll make the yarn one last time. But it's the last time, ok?" He nodded. She walked over to her weaving room, started to close the door when she stopped. "Please don't come in, while I'm in hear." With that she closed the door. The soft hum of the wheel filled the house. Draco couldn't sleep; something was on his mind. What did Hermione use to make the yarn? How did it turn out so white when all the other town's women couldn't theirs get it close to hers? Why did she always tell him not to go in the room when she was in there? And why did she look so skinny? She had a great body, but she looked as if she had been starving. They had plenty of food, so that couldn't be it. Some how he knew all of these questions tied in together, but how? He could still hear the hum of the wheel. What did she do in there? He had to know. He cautiously walked to the door and slowly opened it. What he saw horrified him. Before him stood a giant white owl plucking its down feathers from its breast and feeding the feathers to the wheel. He sucked a breath of air in, which startled the giant bird. This caused it to pull too many feathers at a time, making its self bleed. Draco had passed out, and was lying on the floor.

The next morning Draco awoke to find Hermione gone. On the table was a package with a note on top_. "Draco. I was the owl you rescued that day, almost a month ago. I had always thought that humans were evil and destructive, until I met you. I fell in love with the kindness you showed me; so I made my self transform for you. I wanted take care of you as you had done for me. But now I see that I was wrong to come here. I hope you're happy Draco. You deserve all the joys in the world."_ _–Hermione_. Draco ran out side. **"HERMIONE!"** he yelled. Nothing but silence responded. "She's gone" he felt his heart break. He realized he was still holding her package. He carefully opened it and found a ball of yarn whiter than snow. _"From her feathers"_ On the yarnthere wasa stained spot made of her blood.

The end!


End file.
